美国国家公共电台 NPR As U.S. Flexes Its Muscles On Trade, Other Countries Are Beginning To Push Back

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Now, as we just heard, the G-7 summit comes as President Trump¹ has been pressuring other countries to make big trade concessions². As NPR's Jim Zarroli reports, the resistance he's encountering underscores how isolated³ the U.S. has become on trade.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE⁴: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau doesn't vent⁵ publicly much. But after Trump's recent tariffs⁶ on steel and aluminum⁷, he reacted angrily.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU: We have to believe that at some point, common sense will prevail. But we see no sign of that in this action today by the U.S. administration.

ZARROLI: And Canada isn't the only country that's unhappy. Trump's trade policies have been condemned⁸ throughout Asia, Europe and Latin America. Doug Irwin is a professor of economics at Dartmouth College.

DOUG IRWIN: Well, he's getting a lot of pushback from just about every country that he's taken a tough stance against. There's a lot of global resistance I think to the way the Trump administration's trying to push U.S. trade policy.

ZARROLI: In recent months, Trump has flexed⁹ his muscles on trade. He's insisted on renegotiating trade agreements and threatened tariffs against uncooperative countries. The tough stance represents a calculation that U.S. trading partners will cave in to Washington's demands because they need access to the vast American market. That kind of pressure has worked before. The U.S. once exerted a lot of pressure on Japan to open its markets. In 1987, President Reagan even spoke¹⁰ to the country's parliament.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RONALD REAGAN: Americans believe your markets are less open than ours. We need your support to lower further the barriers that still make it difficult for some American products to enter your markets easily.

ZARROLI: But Doug Irwin says times were different then. Japan was a key U.S. ally in the Cold War. The two countries needed each other. What's more, Irwin says the U.S. dominated the global economy more than it does today.

IRWIN: The weight of the world economy has really shifted towards Asia. That's where some really big, rapidly growing markets are. And the U.S. is just not quite as important as it was before.

ZARROLI: Irwin says today the United States' biggest trading partner is China, and it simply isn't as vulnerable to U.S. pressure as Japan was. Economist¹¹ Simon Johnson of MIT says many countries are also confused by Trump's harsh rhetoric¹² on trade which they see as a big departure from longstanding U.S. policy of promoting open markets.

SIMON JOHNSON: I think a lot of countries are taking the position that they have cooperated for a long time in what has always been an American-initiated and an American-overseen system. So now Mr. Trump wants to change the rules. You know, to what end? (Laughter) What exactly is he going to get from that?

ZARROLI: In the past, the U.S. has argued that fair and open trade benefits all countries. But in his speeches and tweets, Trump sometimes seems to view trade like a war game aimed at winning more favorable terms from your trading partners. And Doug Irwin says a lot of countries are worried that if they give in, Washington will keep demanding ever-bigger concessions.

IRWIN: And I think what they're doing is drawing a line in the sand early on, saying, look; this is an inappropriate way of approaching things; you can't treat us this way, and we're going to resist 'cause if they just cave in, then the Trump administration might double the ask.

ZARROLI: And U.S. trading partners are already making clear they're willing to go their own way. As the G-7 summit was approaching, French President Emmanuel Macron said maybe the American president doesn't mind being isolated, but we don't mind being 6 if necessary. Jim Zarroli, NPR News.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 concessions   

n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权

参考例句：

• The firm will be forced to make concessions if it wants to avoid a strike. 要想避免罢工，公司将不得不作出一些让步。
• The concessions did little to placate the students. 让步根本未能平息学生的愤怒。

3 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 vent   

n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄

参考例句：

• He gave vent to his anger by swearing loudly.他高声咒骂以发泄他的愤怒。
• When the vent became plugged,the engine would stop.当通风口被堵塞时，发动机就会停转。

6 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

7 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

8 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

9 flexed   

adj.[医]曲折的，屈曲v.屈曲( flex的过去式和过去分词 )；弯曲；（为准备大干而）显示实力；摩拳擦掌

参考例句：

• He stretched and flexed his knees to relax himself. 他伸屈膝关节使自己放松一下。 来自辞典例句
• He flexed his long stringy muscles manfully. 他孔武有力地弯起膀子，显露出细长条的肌肉。 来自辞典例句

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

12 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。